Dr. Eve Atkinson will forever go down as one of the best swimmers in collegiate history. In her four years, she became a 12-time All-American and led the Golden Rams to a national championship in 1972. When not in the pool, Atkinson could be found competing in field hockey and women’s lacrosse.

Upon graduation, Atkinson coached swimming collegiately at Temple, UMass and Yale-winning an Ivy League title and mentoring many All-Americans in the process-until 1980 when she made the transition to the administrative side of college athletics. Since then, she became the first female Athletics Director at a NCAA Division I-AA football-playing institution, elected president of the ECAC and was listed among the Top 10 list of women in the sport of swimming as part of the 25th anniversary of swimming in the NCAA. She earned her doctorate from Temple University while serving as the Associate Director of Athletics where she implemented one of the first drug testing programs at the NCAA Division I level.